Vishnuswami

Viṣṇusvāmī was a Hindu religious leader. He is primarily known for having started the Rudra sampradaya. There are almost no sources on the life of Viṣṇusvāmī. The dates of Viṣṇusvāmī's life are unknown, but scholars conjecture he lived circa the 13th century. Viṣṇusvāmī's own works do not survive, and thus little is directly known of his theological positions. His students are also unknown, and his lineage did not continue uninterrupted.

According to Śrīdhara's commentaries on the '' Bhāgavata Purāṇa'' and the '' Viṣṇu Purāṇa'' (c. 1250), Viṣṇusvāmī considered Narasiṁha to be the supreme deity. Mādhavācārya's '' Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha'' (14th century) quotes the ''Sākarasiddhi'', a work of one of Viṣṇusvāmī's followers, and states the same.

In Vallabha's (c. 1478 - 1530) commentary on the ''Bhāgavata Purāṇa'' entitled ''Subodhinī'', he states that Viṣṇusvāmī's devotional path was of the tamāsa guṇa, while he states his own is nirguṇa. Vallabha was the founder of the Puṣṭimārga.

According to a Puṣṭimārga text, Gadādharadāsa's ''Saṁpradāyapradīpa'' (colophon states A.D. 1552–54, but according to Hawley, actually from the latter half of the 1600s), at one point in Kali Yuga a king from Drāviḍa country had conquered all of India and Viṣṇusvāmī was the son of that king's Brāhmaṇa minister. The text states the Viṣṇusvāmī prayed for seven days until Kr̥ṣṇa appeared before him and thus started the Viṣṇusvāmī sampradāya. Centuries later Vallabha wins a ''śāstrārtha'' at the court of Vijayanagara ruler Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya and is offer the ''ācārya'' seat of the Madhva sampradāya by Vyāsatīrtha; however he rejects the offer after he receives a dream in which Vilvamaṅgala (author of the '' Śrīkr̥ṣṇakarṇāmr̥ta'') reveals that he has waited 700 years as the last of 700 Viṣṇusvāmī ''ācārya''s for Vallabha to take his seat and end the popular worship of Śiva as promoted by Śaṅkara. Due to historical inconsistencies, Hawley states this account is "clearly counterfactual" and was composed to further late 17th century Puṣṭimārga interests in promoting Vallabha's sect as one of the four sampradāyas of Vaishnavism and Vallabha as preeminent among contemporary Vaiṣṇava figures as well as previous generations of South Indian Vaiṣṇavas.

There exists a copper land-grant plate dated to 1661, which states that the Vijayanagara ruler Raṁga Rāya gifted the villages of Raṇaghaṭa and Hirekalyāṇi to the head of the Viṣṇusvāmī maṭha. The plate states that Viṣṇusvāmī was a 5th generation student of Gauḍapāda, the student of Śuka, the student of Vyāsa and from there Nārada.

In 1812, the king of Mysore Kr̥ṣṇa Rāja Oḍeyar III remitted the taxes owed by Kr̥ṣṇānanda Svāmī, who was the head of the Viṣṇusvāmī maṭha.

References

Medieval Hindu religious leaders
Vaishnavism

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